Starts with Leggo my Pomo and drifts a bit

[David Casseres]

that still lookin guy sez
>
>> Q:  If a thing cannot be concretely defined, does that mean it is merely an
>> illusory construction?  Or might it exist in some perpetually indefinable
>> way?

...a-and Gary Thompson sez

>I think Herr Goedel comes in about here (to bring us a little closer to 
>Pynchon): that is, if my non-mathematical, not very logical 
>recollection goes right, for any attempt at an airtight, rigorous, 
>self-contained system, there _must_ be some set of statements which are 
>neither true nor false, i.e., indefinable. There's some quantity of 
>"black matter" that we can't wedge into our systems.

Close, but it's subtly different.  The truth or falsity of those 
propositions is well-defined -- each of them *is* true or false -- but 
*we cannot distinguish* the true ones from the false, using that same 
rigorous and self-contained system.  If we move to a larger, enclosing 
logical system, then we can prove or disprove each proposition of the 
smaller system but of course, ha ha, now the larger system introduces new 
propositions that cannot be decided within it.  Und so weiter, and so 
there is always a residue of undecidable propositions; yet each is always 
either true or false.  Which to my mind is more interesting, actually, 
than the idea of propositions that are neither.  But less applicable, I 
think, to the questions (if that's what they are!) of postmodernism.

[other interesting stuff snipped]

>But one of the things that should be recognized is that there's a certain 
>component of _fun_ in some pomo writing (prob. not Jameson): there's a 
>component of devilment in tossing those abstractions around and getting 
>the goat(s) of those believers in the Seriousness Of It All.

Indeed.  While I know little of pomo literary theory, I do know that I 
owe it a vote of thanks for having a bit of fun, and giving us a 
generation of scholars who can see the fun in some of the great monuments 
of literature, Moby-Dick being my favorite example.


Cheers,
David